# Actors playing the same character in different TV shows/movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401 "2009-12-08T02:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/1 "2009-12-08T02:48:58Z")
I’m not really thinking of someone like Kelsey Grammer playing Frasier Crane over and over again. More like, the actor Obba Babatundé who played Berry Gordy in The Temptations movie and also in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Well, technically he was Gordy Berry in Fresh Prince, but close enough. Are there any other people like that? I guess it might make more sense to focus on actors playing real people. ---
**Author:** ![Flip\_Pancake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f1d935/32.png) [@Flip\_Pancake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flip_Pancake)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/2 "2009-12-08T02:52:42Z")
Ian Hart as John Lennon in _Backbeat_ and _The Hours and the Times_ ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/3 "2009-12-08T02:56:47Z")
James Garner played Wyatt Earp in two different movies. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/4 "2009-12-08T03:01:09Z")
Alan Hale Sr. portrayed Little John three times. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/5 "2009-12-08T03:09:11Z")
Peter O’Toole was Henry II in [Becket](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057877/) and four years later played him again in [The Lion in Winter](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063227/) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/6 "2009-12-08T03:30:41Z")
[Michael Sheard](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790410/) has played Hitler five different times, most notably in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_. He also played Himmler three times. [Günter Meisner](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0577070/) (Willie Wonka’s nemesis Mr. Slugworth) played Hitler in three projects. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/7 "2009-12-08T04:13:29Z")
So the same character in a different universe? As in, Richard Belzer has played Det. Munch in something like 8 different shows, but the idea is that all those shows are part of the same world and Belzer’s Munch has one timeline where he experienced everything that happened on those shows. To use an example from above, this is in contrast to James Garner’s two Wyatt Earps, where we can assume there are fictional bit characters in both movies, and each of his Wyatt Earps aren’t expected to have known the fictional bit characters in the other movie. Is that the idea? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/8 "2009-12-08T04:25:28Z")
Yeah, different universes. Shows or movies that aren’t really related or interconnected, but actors who have played a role in more than one movie or program. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/9 "2009-12-08T04:56:12Z")
[Billy Frick](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0294778/) was another multiple Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/4af34b/32.png) [@Umbriel2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel2)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/10 "2009-12-08T05:10:58Z")
Going way back – [Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth I](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733460/) in _Fire over England_ and _The Sea Hawk_. Plus a bit playing herself playing Queen Elizabeth on an English variety show in the '70s. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/11 "2009-12-08T05:22:08Z")
Bette Davis played Elizabeth I twice on film also. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/12 "2009-12-08T05:38:48Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > Bette Davis played Elizabeth I twice on film also. As has Cate Blanchett. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/13 "2009-12-08T05:38:55Z")
Ooh, apparently Robert Barron who played Lincoln in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure played him in three other projects–I think TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/14 "2009-12-08T05:48:46Z")
Kurt Russell played Elvis in a '70s TV movie and then provided the voice of Elvis in _Forrest Gump_. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/15 "2009-12-08T06:02:10Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > As has Cate Blanchett. I don’t think we’re counting movie sequels. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/16 "2009-12-08T06:18:11Z")
Dennis Franz is always a cop. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/17 "2009-12-08T08:19:30Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > So the same character in a different universe? As in, Richard Belzer has played Det. Munch in something like 8 different shows, but the idea is that all those shows are part of the same world and Belzer’s Munch has one timeline where he experienced everything that happened on those shows… It’s worth noting that one of Belzer’s appearances as Munch was on Arrested Development, which isn’t exactly part of the same world as the rest of the shows. Ian Holm has played Napoleon at least three times, in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “Time Bandits,” and “Napoleon in Love.” ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/18 "2009-12-08T08:44:59Z")
Christopher Lee famously played Dracula in several films, beginning in 1958. Some of the subequent films were direct sequels, but some of them were unrelated other than ultimately stemming from the same source material. Patrick McGoohan played John Drake on “Secret Agent (Danger Man)” and “The Prisoner”-- _or did he?_ Of course, if he did that means the shows were set in the same universe – _or were they?_ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/19 "2009-12-08T10:31:13Z")
[Laurence Fishburne](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000401/) played Bumpy twice, once in [The Cotton Club](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087089/) and once in [Hoodlum](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119311/) although the name of the character in Cotton Club was Bumpy Rhodes, his real name was [Bumpy Johnson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumpy_Johnson), the name used in Hoodlum. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401/20 "2009-12-08T12:06:34Z")
Charles Gray (a fine, British character actor probably best known for having no neck and doing the Time Warp) has played Sherlock Holmes’s elder brother Mycroft both in the Jeremy Brett Holmes series and in “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.” Glenda Jackson has also played Queen Elizabeth twice, in a BBC miniseries and in the Vanessa Redgrave film, “Mary, Queen of Scots.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/actors-playing-the-same-character-in-different-tv-shows-movies/520401.md?page=2)